Hard Drive won’t power up? Try these steps

Of all the main PC components, the HDD is the most prone to malfunctions. That’s somewhat scary when we take into consideration that all our personal data is stored on an HDD. And of all errors, the most dreadful one concerns HDD power. Namely, even though the user is certain that Power Supply is working as intended, the critical symptom of HDD dying is its inability to power up.

We provided you with some steps you can take to inspect your HDD, but, for the sake of preserving your data, we advise you to get your HDD to a service as soon as possible.

What to do when HDD won’t boot?

The first and obvious step is to open your PC casing and check whether the HDD is spinning or not. Even the slightest noise should be enough to determine that. If it does, the power supply is not an issue at hand. On the other hand, if it doesn’t, you should thoroughly inspect the power source.

Once you’re there, remove the data cable. The next thing to look at is the power cable and make sure it’s plugged in stiffly. Also, if you have DVD-ROM, try switching the cables with the HDD and look for changes. An alternative troubleshooting step is to remove the HDD from its compartment and place it on another PC.

That way, you’ll be certain whether the HDD is dead or the problem is rather to be found in the current PC configuration. Have in mind that certain modern HDDs can’t be accessed with on vastly different motherboards. This is just for the sake of inspecting the power, not for accessing your HDDs data.

Another thing you should consider is checking BIOS. Sometimes, the SATA drive can be disabled by the BIOS. So, navigate to BIOS and make sure that drives are enabled.

There’s only so much you can do when HDD won’t power up, but we advise you to get it to professionals in order to avoid data loss. Even though the HDD won’t power up, the chances are good that you’ll be able to preserve your data.

That should do it. In case you have a question or suggestions regarding the HDD power issues, make sure to post them in the comments section below.